PLANNING WATCH / PLAN-IT LOS ANGELES

‘History Repeats Itself, First as Tragedy, Second as Farce’ . . . The Case of the Purple Line Transit Plan Dick Platkin, CityWatchLA, Juley 30, 2020 PLANNING WATCH -In a recent 2019 CityWatchLA column and in previous 2016 columns I carefully debunked City Hall’s Purple Line Extension Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP ). I explained how this proposal was a real estate scam masquerading as an essential mass transit component. But, in Los Angeles, even with cascading FBI investigations, United States Attorney indictments, guilty pleas, and prison terms for City Hall officials pitching illicit real estate proposals, Purple Line TNP real estate boondoggles are still rolling out from the trickle down dead-enders .   The latest proposal comes from an anonymous and misnamed Facebook group, Fri...

A Powerful Lesson from the Pandemic: Trickle-down City Planning Does Not Work Dick Platkin, CityWatchLA, July 23, 2020 Vacant Coffee Bean parking lot, opposite the Beverly Center.  Unlike the former employees, the weeds are thriving.  Some of these volunteers even have flowers. PLANNING WATCH -Since its first baby steps in March 2020, the Covid-19 Pandemic and its deepening recession have taught us four important lessons.  Heyday for weeds. When stores shut down and landlords walk away from their properties, weeds quickly take over. The photo above shows what a few months of economic collapse looks like at a prime commercial corner on the westside of Los Angeles. (Third Street & LaCienega) Like viruses, these flowering weeds reveal that Mother Nature gets the last laugh in our economically fragile society. The former parking lot shown in...